


Restoration

by solar_celeste



Series: Immersion [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Brother Feels, Brotherly Bonding, cuteness, i broke the fluff thermometer with this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-24 03:49:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17697095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solar_celeste/pseuds/solar_celeste
Summary: After the events of Submerged, Tim attempts to mend his fragile relationship with Damian.Bruce is still ‘dead’.





	Restoration

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still fairy knew to Ao3 and not super familiar with it, if anyone could tell me how to make these two sister works into a series? It would be greatly appreciated :)

It had been a week. Late nights, later than normal, spent laying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking.

Ever since walking in on his little brother drowning in his own bath water, Tim has been thinking about all the possible ways he could successfully convince Damian spending time together would be beneficial. He had yet to think of a single, foolproof plan.

There was no way that even the civil conversation leading up to the invitation could have been managed _before_ the traumatizing event, so, there was no reason for them to get that far now. Anyways, it was better not to get his hopes up.

Still, there was that part of Tim that remembered that god awful feeling he had felt when he thought he would have been burying his little brother, just because he hadn’t wanted to check on him. It felt horrible to think that a ten year olds death would have been the result of a grudge and his own stubbornness.

The worst part though, was all the regret he felt when he thought about his relationship with the boy.

Tim was the second youngest out of five. That meant that he was an older brother to only _one_ of his siblings. He knew this, all of Gotham knew it, but was he really an older brother at all?

He sure didn’t feel like a big brother.

Dick was a big brother. He checked on all of his siblings regularly, always fixed the issue if there was one. All the bat kids knew they would always be able to turn to Dick. Even if Dick was the oldest, and he didn’t really have a choice, that shouldn’t excuse Tim from his own duties.

Hell, even Jason was a better older brother than Tim was. At least Jason wouldn’t turn Damian down, wouldn’t walk away if the Demon was in need.

So for the past week, instead of mending the issue all together, Tim’s been thinking about everything he’s done wrong. There’s the night he heard Damian sniffling after a nightmare but ignored it, walking by the room thinking someone else would take care of the kid. He thinks about the time he was tasked with picking the brat up from school and was purposefully nearly an hour late.

It had been January then, and the school had been locked when he had arrived, Damian shivering in the cold.

A nasty flu struck not three days after.

That was the kids first winter in Gotham, he now realizes. He’s from the desert too. Tim hadn’t thought about that then.

He makes his decision.

It’s only just after three in the morning, but this can’t wait any longer. He’s wasted enough time as it is. That, and he’s finally realized how to go about it all. He can’t ask the kid. He already knows the results if he tries that route. He can’t make it a choice.

The hallways of the manor are dark, everyone has been back from patrol and in bed for quite some time. But the blanket of night isn’t an issue. Tim’s a good friend of the dark, he always has been, and he could rebuild an exact replica of the manor if he had to.

He makes his way to Damian’s room quickly.

The door’s open a crack, and Tim can see the faint light from the nightlight in the on suite bathroom when he enters.

Damians curled up on his too large bed, vice grip on the comforter that drapes his small shoulders. His youthful cupids bow lift his lip, mouth parted slightly as he breaths soft puffs of air.

Tim just stands and watches for a moment, taking the image in. Months ago, when Damian first came, he would have been awake the moment Tim had stepped into the hall. Now, Tim managed to get all into the ex assassins room unnoticed.

The thought makes Tim smile.

He decided against turning on the light, because he knows _he_ hates being woken like that, and instead just calls out, standing there awkwardly.

“ Damian.” The kids awake and alert before the word can fully come out. He’s still wary.

“ Drake?” It’s supposed to sound awake, alert, and ready, but the small addition of childlike drowsiness cannot be fought. “ Have we been compromised?”

Tim doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the seriousness of the question, probably both.

“ No, everything’s okay, I just want to show you something.” He made his way closer now, crouching down to sit on the edge of the bed.

“ At three in the morning?” Damian asks, reading the analog clock on his bedside table. “ Is this an attempt to frighten me? Because I do not believe in the ‘haunting hour’.”

Tim’s honestly surprised Damian remembered that, he and Jason had tried that months ago. He even thought they had been somewhat successful in freaking the brat out.

“ No, Dami, I promise I just want to show you something.” He made his way to the closet now, and pulled out the familiar, small, red winter jacket.

“ Mmm, no. Go away.” Damian threw himself back into the bed, pulling the covers forcefully over his head.

“ Come on, put this on.” Tim pulls at the covers again, and a mop of black hair peeks out.

“ Why.” Only Damian’s eyes are showing and it looks almost adorable with the still sleepy mask.

“ Because, this is something that I want to do with you.” He tries to be sweet about it, he really does, but all the brat does is huff and roll over.

Oh for the love of-

That’s how Tim finds himself wriggling a hissing Damian into the jacket. He’s careful to take note (but not laugh at) the Batman pajamas the kids wearing.

“ Up we go.” He says, and Tim is hauling a Robin now, comfort blanket and all, out into the hall and down the stairs. It’s reminiscent of when he had carried the boy a week ago, only much more enjoyable.

Damian makes no protests, not even when he is illegally placed in the front seat of Tim’s Lamborghini and really, theres nothing stopping Tim from thinking the boys asleep until he curls his knees to his chest and asks the question of the night.

“ Where are we going?” Tim has to refrain himself from pointing out the stray thumb inching towards the kids still slightly parted lips.

“ A surprise, one I think you’ll enjoy.”

“ I don’t care much for surprises, Drake.” It’s not because Damian wants to be able to be excited, it’s because he wants to be prepared if he is being led into a situation in which he will need to fight. Of course, they were both aware of this.

Holding onto the little patience he has left, Tim sucks in a deep breath and responds.

“ I think you’ll like this one.”

“ You don’t know that.” Damian says, but Tim only hears; _you don’t know_ me. And he doesn’t, but that’s what he’s trying to fix. And he would really appreciate, if Damian could cooperate and make the task a whole lot easier.

“ Then _trust_ me.” That was a lot to ask of someone being told from birth never to trust a soul. So Tim was honestly quite shocked when Damian silently snuggled further into his blanket.

He blamed it on sleep deprivation. Because they were _not_ just bonding.

Tim knows how to get to where their going purely by muscle memory. He’s been there so many times, with so many people. Now it’s the brats turn.

The tires crunch under the car as the concrete road turns to dirt. Trees loom over them threatening to swallow the vehicle whole. Neither mind. Damian has his eyes closed once more, supposedly asleep, while the shrinking space only feels like home to Tim.

The familiar twists and turns spark memories for the older boy. Times his caretakers had taken him here while his parents were on particularly long trips. And later, once he was older, when he came here on his own.

A year after becoming Robin he had introduced Dick to the breathtaking treasure, he still remembers his older brothers wide smile.

Three years after that, when Jason had popped back up from the dead, he had come again. That night was a big part of why he and his predecessor didn’t hold such large quantities of hatred for each other anymore.

Tim was hoping to repeat history.

Soon, the rumbling car had reached the clearing. Grass faded into rock before dropping off. A cliff, so high the bottom was unseeable from the top. A safety hazard, yes, but the space was too beautiful and raw to ruin with a guard rail.

This time, after Tim shut off the car, he didn’t even bother trying to wake the little boy next to him. Cradling the small body he climbed from the seat and into the fresh March air.

A warm night, where the cool breeze was welcomed.

The smooth rock fit around his form as he sat, making sure to keep at least 15 feet from the edge. He peered at the slumbering form on his lap. Damian was still sleeping, turned out he did trust Tim after all.

“ Hey, kiddo.” He called, voice soft in the quiet. Damian grumbled, inaudible, but he was awake. “Look up.”

Having enough with all the pestering, Damian opened his eyes slowly, one following the other. And gasped.

Stars, shining as bright as spotlights, littered the sky above them, unclouded by city smog and LED’s. A scene so like what Damian had grown up with in Nanda Parbat it took him a moment to realize he wasn’t in his homeland, but his big brothers arms. It took him another, to realize he didn’t mind that.

They stayed like that for nearly an hour, sitting in the rock that had molded to Tim’s shape after years of visits. Neither spoke, just taking in the slowly rising sun and sinking stars.

The sun was nearly entirely visible, highlighting Gotham city in the distance, when Damian spoke:

“ Drake?” He asked, voice quiet, unsure.

“ I’m sorry Dames.”

“ Me too.”


End file.
